A Debt Discharged
by Arysta
Summary: Kaoru owes Saitoh a debt and the collection is going to put her, Kenshin and Sano in trouble!
1. Part One

Challenge 1: "Why did you say I have to take my top off again?"  
  
Title: A Debt Discharged  
Author: Arysta  
Challenge: Challenge #1 – "Why did you say I have to take my top off again?"   
Comments: Well, this is my first-ever Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction. It was begun in response to one of Princess Destiny's One Hour Challenges – meaning the first part was written in just around an hour. Please let me know what you think.   
  
  
A DEBT DISCHARGED  
By ARYSTA  
  
PART ONE  
  
  
"Please, Kaoru-dono, tell me -- why did you say I have to take my top off again?" Kenshin stared at the midnight-haired adjunct master of Kamiya Kassin Ryu, incredulous.   
  
Kaoru heaved a sigh, the training gi she wore rising and falling with the force of her inhalation. Her hands were fisted around the panels of fabric, clutching it to her throat. "Kenshin no baka," she hissed in a furious whisper while looking around frantically to see if they had been detected, "You can't wear that gi into there!"   
  
"She's right, Kenshin, you wear that girly-color into *this* bar and you'll be mobbed – and not in a nice way."   
  
"Thank you, Sano, de gozaro yo," Kenshin said meekly, hanging his head. "But sessha's gi is not that bad."   
  
Silence surrounded him. Crickets sang in the late afternoon sunlight.   
  
Defeated, Kenshin slowly untied his gi, silently removing his sakaba sword from the waist and laying it in Kaoru's waiting palms. He handed the old, frayed magenta gi to Kaoru, sighing as she took the fabric.   
  
"I promise I'll be careful with it," Kaoru whispered to him, handing him his sword. "Now turn around."  
  
"Oro?"   
  
Red-color rose in Kaoru's face. "So I can change," she said shortly.  
  
"Oh!" Embarrassed at his gaffe, Kenshin whirled to face the plain wooden wall.   
  
"Sano!"   
  
"I'm turning, I'm turning." The tall spiky-haired man was soon facing the wall too.  
  
Kenshin clearly heard the rustling sounds as Kaoru rearranged her clothing.   
  
"Aren't you going to peek?" Sano asked in what, for him, was a conspiratorial tone.   
  
"I heard that!"   
  
"No, Sano-san, sessha will not peek."   
  
The rustling continued. In an effort to ignore the intimate pictures that sprang immediately to mind, Kenshin focused on the faint chatter that emanated from the crowded bar.   
  
"Okay."   
  
Sano and Kenshin glanced at each other, then quietly turned around. Kaoru was pulling her long ponytail from the neck of Kenshin's gi. It was overlarge on her, but she had been able to belt it tightly enough that it looked all right.   
  
Kenshin had to force his pulse to a semblance of normality. It would not do for Kaoru-dono to see the effect that she had on him, but having her cuddled so sweetly into his worn, familiar gi was almost as good as having her snuggled into his arms.  
  
Well, maybe not.  
  
Why don't you, his darker half prompted. What could she do if you took her in your arms and held her?   
  
Images of painful recompense flashed through his brain.   
  
She wants you to love her. Battousai sounded very sure of himself tonight, Kenshin-the-rurouni noted.   
  
"Here. Put these on." From Kaoru's hand draped strings of bandages, and her own white gi.   
  
"They will be too small, de gozaro yo," Kenshin said with a smile.   
  
"That's why I gave you the bandages," Kaoru said with a faint smile.   
  
The rurouni pasted a smile on his face while inside he fought back a wave of love. Kaoru-dono still tried to protect him, even having seen his strength.   
  
"Jou-chan, does that mean…." Sano trailed off as a heavy wooden bokken landed on his head, making remarkably little noise. "Oi! That hurt!"   
  
Kaoru, face flushed even in the deepening gloom, turned from Sano. "Good."  
  
Kenshin took care not to stare at the now-prominent peaks of Kaoru's breasts through the thin material of his gi, instead taking up the mass of bandages that she had given him. He sorted out the strips, many long ones wrapped together and slightly grey from sweat and washings. He started to reach around his back and coil the bandages around him – thus presenting at least a semi-respectable appearance for their trip back through the bar. It was impossible.  
  
"Here," Kaoru-dono said, "let me help you."   
  
Shame nagged him – she must have noticed his incompetence.  
  
Then her delicate fingers were lifting the bandages from his hands and coiling them with practiced ease. "Turn," she commanded, and he obeyed. Her fingers brushed the skin of his back as she began to run the bandages across.   
  
She moved swiftly, her arm wrapped around him and her hair falling over his face and shoulder when she leaned forward to grasp the end. "Hold this," she said, and he did, his fingers touching hers in passing. She faltered – it was almost unnoticeable – and then continued.   
  
In moments she was tying off the bandages and helping him into her own white gi. The shoulders were tight, which was to be expected, but the gi managed to close over his chest. "Is it alright?"   
  
"Hai," Kaoru said, nodding her head once for emphasis.  
  
"Sano?"  
  
Sanosuke cocked his head. "Hai, that will work. Good idea, jou-chan."   
  
"Are we ready to go?" Kaoru asked.   
  
Kenshin nodded, Sano did as well.  
  
"Let's go," she said, squaring her shoulders. She couldn't hide her trembling fingers.   
  
Kenshin stood up first. "Please stay behind me, Kaoru-dono," he said, slipping the sheathed sakaba sword into the waist of his hakama.   
  
Sanosuke followed Kaoru, and they moved slowly through the back door of the bar.  
  
Chaos greeted them, though it was at least somewhat controlled. The sound of masculine laughter mixed with the low murmur of female voices. Most of the patrons of the bar were dressed in uniforms and wore weapons at their waist.   
  
Kenshin slowed his stride, and assigned part of his mind to keep concentrating on Kaoru's ki. Her breath slid against the nape of his neck, she was so close. He could feel the fear that rolled off of her, and wished that he could take the time to calm her.   
  
Their movement was noted by the waitress, who nodded cheerfully at them. Kenshin expanded his senses to their limits, feeling the pulsing auras of fighting men surrounding them.   
  
They moved a few more feet, weaving past tables. A man grumbled and looked up when they moved by, then did a pronounced double-take. Kenshin felt his heart sink.   
  
"Ahh… hello there, girl!" He reached out a hand, pulling Kaoru from behind Kenshin. Sano grabbed at her as she was pulled, but the man had already wrapped her in his arms.   
  
"Let her go," Kenshin said, fighting to keep his voice steady. His hand clenched into a fist, though he kept his fingers from touching the smooth handle of his sakaba. The Battousai clamored in the back of his brain, screaming for him to take action immediately.  
  
The man smiled drunkenly showing yellow and blackened teeth interspersed with gaping holes. "Make me!"   
  
END PART 1 


	2. Part Two

They moved a few more feet, weaving past tables. A man grumbled and looked up when they moved by, then did a pronounced double-take. Kenshin felt his heart sink. 

"Ahh… hello there, girl!" He reached out a hand, pulling Kaoru from behind Kenshin. Sano grabbed at her as she was pulled, but the man had already wrapped her in his warm arms. 

"Let her go," Kenshin said, fighting to keep his voice steady. His hand clenched into a fist, though he kept his fingers from touching the smooth handle of his sakaba. The Battousai clamored in the back of his brain, screaming for him to take action immediately.

The man smiled, showing yellow and blackened teeth interspersed with gaping holes. "Make me!" 

PART 2

"Goro-san!" The voice was overloud in the silence of the night.

Saitoh took a deep dragon on his cheroot before tossing it into the dirt and crushing it beneath his heel. 

"Goro-san," the voice repeated urgently. 

"Idiot," Saitoh said contemptuously, under his breath, before stalking out of the shadows of a large tree. Across the road squatted the dingy bar where even now the murderer was seeking out his next victim. 

"There's a problem, sir," the idiot babbled. 

He was young, carrying less than twenty years of life on his still-narrow shoulders. The child barely knew what a problem was!     

"What is it?" Saitoh asked. He was tired, and he wanted nothing more than to finish this dismal day and turn to the arms of his loving wife. 

"The red-haired man is *not* wearing the pink gi, sir!" The child-man pointed to wildly to the bar, babbling on about colors and people. 

Saitoh brushed by him, slipping silently into the shadows underneath a window. He glanced inside the tavern, hiding himself out of habit rather than some conviction that it was necessary. Those inside were drunkards, not killers.

He cursed, disbelieving, as he saw the drama playing out within. _What kind of an idiot takes a woman into a bar?_ He blinked, and his vision was confirmed. Kamiya Kaoru was indeed in the bar, and she was wearing the dirty, tattered gi that the foolish rurouni clung so mutinously to. The gi that was even now clutched in the meaty hand of some drunken fool who didn't realize who he was testing. 

He glanced once at Himura, and then whirled away. The rurouni's hand had already settled on the hilt of his ridiculous sword. Behind him lurked the gangster that he had chosen to call friend.

Those idiots were going to ruin all his plans!

"Idiot Battousai!" 

"Goro-san?" The boy spoke as he stalked back into circle of armed policemen that he had picked so carefully for this very sensitive operation. 

"Get in there boy," he growled, plucking another cheroot from his pocket and lighting it. "Make sure that that fool's woman doesn't die."

His skill might save him if Kamiya were killed, but the clutch of young, eager policemen that surrounded him would have no chance against the Battousai's aroused blood-thirst.  

The boy was shifting, his hand shaking on the hilt of the government issued blade. 

"Hurry!" Saitoh took a long draw on the cheroot, and watched the boy slowly enter the bar.

*     *     *

The man's hands were touching Kaoru. 

Kenshin-the-rurouni reminded himself that he had agreed to play this farce out completely – as had Kaoru and Sano. The Battousai wasn't convinced.

_I didn't agree to this_!

Kenshin ignored the dark voice and kept his eyes trained on the man who held the woman he had sworn to protect. The man's ki reeked of blood, of death, and of cruelty. He had killed before. There was no doubt he was the murderer that Saitoh had sent them to find. He hadn't expected it to be this easy. Kaoru had brushed against the man by accident, not by the plan's design. Saitoh's plan had dovetailed nicely, but in an unexpected way.

The man's fingers, fat and sausage-like, danced around Kaoru's neck, touching her nape and brushing her hair from the shoulders of her kimono. 

When were the police going to step in?

The plan is simple, Kaoru had said. Go in the tavern, get the man, and get out of the tavern. The Mibu Wolf, the man responsible for this whole mess, was waiting outside. 

_This is stupid – and Kaoru should *not* be here._

The rurouni agreed. 

The man was snuffling at Kaoru's shoulders now, his nose brushing against the soft, sweet skin at her collarbone. Kaoru herself looked disgusted, but she bore the ill treatment with grace. She had known what her part was since the beginning, not that knowing that there was a point to such manhandling made it any easier to go through.

"Come on, I have a room," the man slurred out, grabbing Kaoru's hand to lead her off. 

That wasn't part of the plan. 

"Please, stop," Kenshin said, trying to sound innocent and impotent. The Battousai growl in his voice told him that he hadn't completely succeeded. 

Kaoru's eyes flashed in warning, even as the man stuck her slender fingers in his mouth and began to suck on them. Kenshin watched Kaoru gag, though she covered it was a hearty cough. 

The Battousai didn't like the sight.

Even the rurouni had known that this wasn't a good plan from the very beginning, but Kaoru had owed a favor. It was only honorable to allow Saitoh to collect his debt.

_The Wolf planned it this way._

Kenshin brushed the Battousai's angry statement away. It didn't matter if he agreed wholeheartedly. The only thing important now was Kaoru's safety. 

The man was pulling at her, tugging her toward the door. 

Kenshin's hand touched the pommel of his blade.

The man's eyes shot to it with the movement. 

_This man is not a fool._

"Oooh, pretty boy thinks he's a samurai." Looking directly at him, the murderer made a show of licking Kaoru's palm.   
The Battousai roared at the challenge. Kenshin managed to contain his anger, to bottle it and feed it into his suffering patience.

"Do you want to fight me, Samurai?" The man grabbed the sake bottle he had been drinking from and swung it, liquor dripping out all over and creating puddles on the floor. Kenshin saw the waitress' hand fly to her mouth at the sight. 

"Hey, what's going on here?"

Finally! Kenshin forced his hand to leave his sakabatou. Though he didn't look much, the child who approached was clearly a policeman. How much had he been told? 

"This man has taken my woman," he managed to say. Two days of practicing hadn't made the words any easier to say. 

The flicker in the boy's eyes told him that the message had been understood. 

"Is this true?" The boy's gulped as he spoke, a sure sign of nervousness.

The drunken man laughed, lurching on his feet. "He's a liar." The man burped loudly. "She's mine for the night." He patted Kaoru's arm. "That's a good girl."

The boy looked lost. The Battousai stirred. _This doesn't look good._

His response should have been something calm, some phrase that would soothe the drunken murder and coax him to release Kaoru. Not an inflammatory comment, by any means.

Kenshin eyed the man's grasp on Kaoru. Though he was clearly inebriated, his hands remained steady and firm. Too firm, perhaps, where they brushed the undersides of Kaoru's breasts through the worn gi. A habitual drinker. A man prone to violence. The situation made him more dangerous, not less.

Saitoh had, no doubt, expected it.

_I'll cut off every other finger,_ Battousai mused, and Kenshin forced himself not to wince at the graphic, bloody picture that popped into his mind. 

We don't have time for this, he told himself…

END PART TWO


	3. Part Three

Kenshin eyed the man's grasp on Kaoru. Though he was clearly inebriated, his hands remained steady and firm. Too firm, perhaps, where they brushed the undersides of Kaoru's breasts through the worn gi. A habitual drinker. A man prone to violence. The situation made him more dangerous, not less.

Saitoh had, no doubt, expected it.

_I'll cut off every other finger,_ Battousai mused, and Kenshin forced himself not to wince at the graphic, bloody picture that popped into his mind. 

We don't have time for this, Kenshin told himself. 

PART THREE

_Save Kaoru. _

Right, Kenshin said. He must save Kaoru. 

"We're leaving," the man said. 

"Wait…this situation is not resolved," the boy said.        

"Are you still here? Bothersome insect!" The heavy backhand he dealt sent the boy crashing backwards. The hilt of his police-issued katana caught on a chair leg and he spun, not stopping until he hit the far wall with a loud thunk.     

Kenshin knew that he would not be getting up anytime soon.

The drunken man was laughing. "The situation is now resolved!"            

"Let me take him," Sano said. "I can handle it."

_He's mine!_ The Battousai roared.         

"No. This fool is mine." 

The Battousai's victory cheer nearly deafened him.        

The man's hand was twisted into the smooth coils of Kaoru's dark hair. Her face was stretched with pain and anger. Her eyes were wide and intent. He could almost hear her yelling at him, "Get it over with!"    

"You want to claim this woman, bratling?" He held her chin roughly—he would leave bruises—and pressed a sloppy kiss to her cheek. His eyes dared Kenshin to react as, with a quick thrust, he pushed Kaoru from him and lifted his fists. "If you want her, then you'll have to go through me!"    

"Bastard," Kenshin breathed.    

"She's alright," Sano said. Kenshin had seen him catch Kaoru as she fell away from the drunkard's touch.          

"No, I'm not," Kaoru said, tugging on the falling shoulder of Kenshin's gi. She frowned at the man and smacked Sano in the shoulder with a balled up fist. "Let me go!"        

Sano, unaffected by the blow, shook his head grimly. "Can't do it, sorry."          

"You don't sound very sorry," Kaoru said. She stopped twisting in Sano's grasp. The only thing her fighting was accomplishing was to tighten his grasp on her middle.     

"Oh. Too bad," Sano said. "You're still not jumping into the middle of *that* jou-chan. Kenshin'd have my head."         

_Like I couldn't! _Kaoru snarled to herself. Did no one think she was capable of taking care of herself? Except Goro-san, of course, or whatever he was calling himself. *He* had thought her capable of handling this. They had gone over the plan carefully, and he had believed she could accomplish it. Why didn't Kenshin or Sano trust her? She dropped her hand to the seam of her hakama. The masculine-styled garments had been carefully altered to conceal a thin but sturdy rod, a rod that she had spent the past three days secretly practicing with. A rod that had been provided by Goro-san just for this occasion—as had the hakama itself.      

Kenshin's eyes had long gone cold, a shadowed gray that indicated just how close he was to reaching the plane in himself where the Battousai lived.         

"You can't let him become Battousai," Goro-san had said. "Under no circumstances can it occur. You must be willing to *die* before that happens, do you understand?"            

His explanation had been clear enough—and the reasons behind the necessity were inarguable.             

"Perhaps we should take this outside the establishment," Kenshin purred in a deep voice. He motioned toward the back exit, past the kitchen.            

The murderer burped—it smelled foul even as far as Kaoru's nose!—and shook his head. "If you want a fight, boy, you'll take a beating in here. I'm not taking a chance on your pal leaving with the goods."

Kaoru rolled her eyes, and glanced at the young policeman that, presumably, Goro had sent in. He wasn't going to be of any help. She sighed, closed her eyes, and swore that when the evening was over she was going to give Goro the-ex-hitokiri a taste of the rod he had designed so carefully.     

She moved quickly, shoving her arms wide and loosing Sano's hold on her then ramming them back and into his sides. She whirled and stomped on his foot while he coughed in surprise, then shoved him backwards into the growing crowd of onlookers. She mouthed a quick 'sorry' that he didn't see, as he was completely absorbed in coloring the air blue with a few hundred carefully-chosen curses.           

"I'm not goods, you bastard," she said, jumping in between the murderer and the ex-hitokiri. She grasped the rod's end and ripped the weapon free, feeling the seams tear free with some annoyance. Goro-san would get another smack for not informing her that she would be next-to-naked from the thigh down after retrieving the weapon.  

"Ooh, the kitten thinks she has a claw," the drunken man laughed.          

"I am Kamiya Kaoru, and I am a master" _forgive me, father,_ she said to herself "of Kamiya Kassin Ryuu. You are under arrest for the murder of six women."      

For a moment, she thought he would come quietly—either that, or pass out. Then she saw the tremors in his wrists, and the pulse throbbing on the man's forehead. She swallowed and tightened her grasp on the rod, wishing it didn't feel quite so strange in her hands. She would have been much more comfortable with her own bokken.         

"You witch," the man said, softly and visciously. "You lying female!"      

Then he lunged.

*****

Saitoh spit out the butt of his last cheroot and ground it beneath his toe. What was going on in the tavern? 

He eyed the still-closed doorway. If the boy had succeeded in diffusing the tension he would have been out already, preferably with the murdering bastard in tow. There was no help for it.   

The window gave him only a partial view of the Kamiya girl standing in front of a brutal, drunken killer, brandishing the damn wooden stick he'd given her. Saitoh closed his eyes in anguish. How lowering to see the fearsome, merciless hitokiri Battousai reduced to this! To a weak man who would let an innocent woman walk headlong into danger. "Fool," he spit. "Utter fool."

"This apprehension is over," Saitoh announced. He slid easily into his Goro-san demeanor.

"Sir?"   

"You may leave," he said again. 

"All of us, sir?" The young man gulped. How old was he, the Wolf wondered, seventeen? Eighteen, at best? Not old enough to lose his life because of the Battousai's stupidity.

"Yes, all of you. Every single one of you. Go get dinner. Go home. Do whatever it is you do when you are not within my sight."

"Y… yes sir," the boy stammered, almost tripping over his own feet as he stepped backwards. 

It was only a matter of minutes before the area was cleared.

Saitoh—he had put away the obscuring Goro-san mask—looked in the window yet again. He was just in time to see the fat, drunken, woman-murdering slob that he was trying to capture throw himself at Kamiya—and just saw the quick rise of the rod to meet the man's face. 

Saitoh shook his head, thinking of his gentle, timid wife. The same wife who, on those particular days of the month wouldn't hesitate to broadside him with her iron skillet if she decided that he was being particularly bull-headed. 

"Well, well," he said, "I guess she trained after all."

Though that wasn't an excuse for the Battousai's stupidity.

*****

Kaoru just managed to block his attack, the rod in her hands flying up to smack him in the face just before his fist hit her cheek. He pulled back, eyes red-rimmed and burning with anger, and fingered the bleeding stripe that decorated his forehead.

"You'll regret that," he said softly.

Kenshin watched the attack—and defense—with his hand clenched on his sword-hilt, an inch of blade showing between the hilt and that scabbard. He had managed not to skewer her when she had foolishly jumped between The Battousai and his prey, but the drunken, murdering dog clearly had no compunction about harming Kaoru, woman though she was. It was even possible, he thought grimly, that the woman-murderer found Kaoru's fierceness more interesting than dealing with any man. 

"Kaoru-dono, please let me handle this dangerous situation.

Kenshin held desperately to the last threads of his fraying temper. One wrong move could spell disaster—and when Kaoru was involved a misstep was a near-certainty.

"Please, Kaoru-dono," he asked again. 

Kaoru didn't give any sign that he heard him speaking.

_She's facing a murderer!_ The Battousai screamed. Kenshin could almost see him, jumping frantically in the mental cage that he dwelled within. _And she's half naked! Hey, look at that leg! _

Kenshin steadfastly refused to look at Kaoru's exposed skin. He knew that if he did he would lose whatever control still remained. 

"Kaoru-dono…"

"Begging the kitten, samurai-boy?" The drunken murderer's smile was less mocking now, and more twisted. Angry. Kenshin could feel, through the shield of Kaoru's body, the strength of his ki building as the man grew more upset. 

The rod whipped up and smacked the man in the face again—this time drawing blood with its vicious bite. 

"Did you hear me?" Kaoru demanded, angling the rod for another strike. "You're under arrest."

"Get out of here!" She heard Sano's voice. "Everyone out NOW! Clear this place unless you want to be hurt!" 

Between Sano's loud encouragement and the whispers of 'murderer' passing through the tavern, the building was cleared easily. Soon the only people left (besides the combatants) were Kenshin, Sano, the unconscious policeman and the building's owner, who had grabbed two knives and dug them into the wall when Sano had tried to pull him bodily from his property. 

"Kauro-dono…." Again with the mournful, almost-firm voice. The husky whisper that reminded her who was lurking in Kenshin's heart and whose hand rested most firmly on his sword. 

"Kenshin, let me handle this." _You cannot let him become Battousai_, she remembered Goro-san's directive. _Can't you see I'm doing this for you, Kenshin?_

"Handle what? You think you can handle me?" The man grabbed his crotch and leered. 

"You don't believe I can take you?" Kaoru asked. "Come on!" _And let this thing hold!_ She braced herself for his attack. She wasn't prepared for him coming at her with a knife, though.

"Watch out," Kenshin called grimly as he spotted the tell-tale glitter of steel. He didn't dare attempt to shove her out of the way

Kaoru's blood chilled in her veins, her fingers felt heavy on the wooden rod. She was fighting for Kenshin. For Goro-san. For herself. She was fighting to prove that she could. 

The knife zipped toward her, catching the material of the over-large gi and slicing it open. An inch of belly showed when the fabric fell away. Kaoru's face burned with fury and humiliation, but she didn't allow the indignity to freeze her. 

With a quick twist, she sent the rod spinning, impacting the man's still-outstretched arm. He howled with pain and anger, and thrust the knife at her belly. All thoughts of play had clearly left him—he was out for her blood.

She dodged the knife and swept the rod toward his throat, but he shifted and the disabling blow didn't connect. She didn't have time to withdraw her arm before his heavy, sweaty body hit hers and they both went down on the tavern floor.

Her first thought was that she was going to throw up—then she felt the prick of the blade along her ribs and forget the acid burn of vomit in her throat. She abandoned the rod, letting it fall from her fingers. She heard it clang and roll on the floor, as if from a distance, as she grabbed the murderer's hair with her free hand and pulled as hard as she could. 

He grunted, but didn't move. The knife continued to inch its way along her side, leaving a path of burning fire in its wake. Her heart beat heavily and she heard her breath echoing between them. 

"Your heart is mine," he said. He reeked so badly of sake that his breath burned her eyes. 

"Never," she coughed out, wrenching her other arm free from beneath him and grabbing his cheeks with both hands. His pig-like eyes watched her, hate-filled, as he twisted the knife. Starbursts of pain ran through her. Kaoru smiled—and rammed his face with her forehead as hard as she could. 

*****

"Kenshin, do something!"          

Kenshin growled at the tall man standing beside him. "I can't do anything when they're in that position, not without risking harming…"

"Right," Sano said.

It wasn't a pretty sight, the big man lying on top of Kaoru in a gross, clothed parody of sexual intercourse. Kenshin could see the smooth, pale skin of Kaoru's leg as she bent her knee in an attempt to throw the man from her—an attempt that he knew was useless, as the murderer was at least double her body weight. 

Sano noticed the disappearance of the man's knife at the same time Kenshin did.

"Hey, where's the…"

Blood exploded in a fountain, so much of it that Kenshin couldn't tell whose it was or where it was coming from. 

"Knife…" Sano trailed off. 

Lips compressed, Kenshin sheathed his sakabatou and leaned down to wrench the combatants apart.

*****

Blood was everywhere. It was hot on her face and chest. Her forehead stung with the force of the blow and Kaoru had to blink twice before she could see straight again. 

The murderer wasn't unconscious, and wasn't dead, though he did seem to be in some pain. _At least_, she thought sourly. Her rips stung as if a stray cat had decided she was a mouse, especially near her breast where he had held the blade in those last desperate moments. 

Then the weight was gone and she could breathe.          

She curled immediately in on herself, concentrating on making sure air flowed in and out of her lungs. Gentle hands fluttered around her shoulders, it was as if their owner was scared to touch her. Only one person—in the room, at least—fit that description.

"I'm okay, Sano," she said. 

"You sure?" He asked. The hands disappeared.

She winced at the sound of flesh hitting flesh—the awful cracking sound of a broken bone.

"I think you broke his nose," Sano said helpfully.

"I hope so," she said.

"I'll take the prisoner," a new voice said.

Kaoru turned over, and gingerly pulled herself upright. Her ribs burned with the movement and she slapped her hand over the wound immediately. She gratefully took Sano's hand to get to her feet.

"You're welcome," she said raggedly.

Goro-san turned his icy gaze on her. "I was surprised by your… vigor," he admitted. "It was most unexpected."

Kaoru muttered beneath her breath. 

Kenshin handed the man over with a cheery—and very false—smile. The drunkard sported a few more bruises than she was responsible for, or so Kaoru thought. She couldn't be certain, as most of his face and chest was covered with blood from his still-bleeding nose. From the skewed angle the appendage sat at, she was pretty sure that she had broken the thing. She was suddenly fiercely proud of herself. 

Until Goro-san's parting shot brought Kenshin's attention right where she didn't want it—back to her. 

"Make sure you get those cuts looked at, Kamiya."

He disappeared out the door, prisoner in tow, leaving her to the wolves.

"Cuts?" Kenshin asked. He was at her side in a flash, digging at the folds of his worse-for-the-wear gi and poking at the skin beneath. Kaoru flinched and cried out when his poking fell upon the burning slice. "You're injured!" 

"I'm fine," she said, pushing at his prodding hands, though she wasn't too sure that she was. As most of the blood that covered her seemed to be drying, however, she was fairly sure that the cuts were mostly superficial.

Her protestation was enough to start both men cursing and poking, and in the end she gave in to their ministrations, content that she had won the day and, for once, the men could handle the clean-up and recovery details.

*****

End Part Three -- TBC


	4. Part Four

Part Four:

Kaoru awoke to silence the next morning. Complete, utter silence. It was so odd that she found herself scrambling into her clothing and tying off her hair hastily as she flew from her room. 

"Yahiko? Kenshin?"  
She skidded to a halt on the porch, and blinked. 

"Ohayo," Kenshin greeted. He didn't lift his eyes from the fabric he was mending. Her hakama. Folded to his side was his pink gi. Kaoru could still see the rents in it.

"Are you still mad at me?" 

He looked up at her slowly, letting his dark and cloudy violet eyes speak for him. Kaoru hid a shudder as she saw the wildness contained within those eyes. 

"Kenshin…"

He stood slowly. Though not a tall man, his presence, when he wished it to be, could fill an entire room. When he stood, Kaoru felt the full weight of his regard bearing down on her. 

"Are you recovered?"

What was that odd look for? Kaoru took a quick inventory of Kenshin's person—he wore no sword. She sighed with relief. "Yes."

"Good." 

Kaoru gasped as Kenshin grabbed her. He pulled her into his embrace and buried his face in her neck. His breath was hot, nearly burning, and uneven against her shoulder. 

"Never again," he said, his voice muffled by the fabric of her gi and her skin. "Never." Kaoru was shocked to feel the fine tremble that sped through his shoulders—almost as shocked as she was to feel the cool, unmistakable touch of his lips on her neck. 

"Ke… Kenshin?"

"Oh beloved! To stand there, unable to act, afraid to harm you…!" His lips were traveling up her neck, touching the lobe of her ear and then settling heartily on her temple. His arms, swordsman's arms corded with muscle and strong of sinew, tightened around her. Her breasts flattened into his chest and her hips settled against his own. 

She attempted to breathe. Her hands were roaming his back of their own volition. She became aware of the strength there, of the heat of his body beneath her touch and against her. She felt herself melting into him, this stranger who wore Kenshin's face and spoke with Kenshin's voice but was behaving in a most Un-Kenshin-like manner.

He set her from his as suddenly as he had pulled her against him, and the separation was chilling, both physically and mentally. 

"Look at me," he commanded.

She did, biting her lip and twining her fingers around his wrists as he twisted his around hers. 

"I cannot allow this again, you understand? Such torture cannot be endured, even by one as unworthy as I!" 

Kaoru goggled at him. Had Kenshin gotten hit on the head? She searched his face for some sign of humor, or of anger. Was this some sad, sick joke? No, Kenshin would not do such a thing. 

"I… I'm sorry if I scared you," she said haltingly. 

"Scared me?" His violet eyes widened. "Beloved…" The word stretched between them, naked and vulnerable—and as full of intent as the look in the rurouni's endless eyes. There was no pretense there, no posturing--and no hiding. The masks of civility were gone, the Battousai was clearly silent. The only one left was… Kenshin.

A fire kindled there, in those violet depths. A flickering spark that became a heated blaze. Kaoru gasped as she felt her body respond to that unvoiced call. Her heart began to pound and her chest felt tight with emotions she dared not reveal. Tears stung her eyes at the simple sincerity of his words.

She stammered out a useless, nonsense sentence. Kenshin smiled sweetly and brushed her cheek softly with his hand. His fingertips slid beneath her ear and settled against the back of her head. 

"Kenshin!"

He bent toward her. Kaoru smelled spice and heat and sweaty, musky male. Kenshin. Her hands clenched tight around his elbows. She knotted her fingers into the sleeves of his gi and held tightly to him. 

The world shook when his lips touched hers. 

Tenderness swelled within Kaoru's breast at the butterfly-light touch. Soft, barely there, but undeniably sweet. 

"Aayiiee! Kenshin, why are you sucking face with the busu?"

Needless to say, the tentative emotion that the couple was nurturing between them shattered like a mirror cast upon stone, the pieces scattering to the winds. Kaoru's mood did likewise. 

She turned to her young apprentice with glowing, eerie eyes. Her mouth was contorted into a peculiar smile that screamed of the roiling temper underneath. 

Had Yahiko been somewhat older, or any more used to the female temperament, he might have noticed these details, Kenshin thought. As the boy didn't, the rurouni began to back slowly away from the enraged woman. The woman, he thought with dazed incredulity, who had only moments before been cuddled against him. His lips still tasted of her. 

They were arguing, yelling at each other in voices that surely must carry to the street and beyond. Kenshin winced, knowing that the afternoon's walk to the market for dinner supplies would once again be remarked about by the eagle-eyed—and eared—matrons who ruled the town's social circles. He realized that he had not seen the stares or heard the whispered comments for some time now. Not since… 

He smiled, and returned to his mending. 

Things were getting back to normal.

He felt eyes upon him. Kaoru's eyes. Her brilliant, gem like gaze was watching him, even as she argued with the boy. 

Well, maybe things were changing. 

But perhaps that was only as it should be.

Perhaps, the rurouni thought, feeling unexpectedly light of heart…

_No way_, the Battousai growled. 

"I was just going to…"

_No way are you thanking that damn Wolf for this little adventure._

Kenshin laughed, abandoning vague seduction plans that he knew would go awry. "At least," he said in a low whisper, "we are of the same mind on that thought!

**THE END**


End file.
